Great news! The OPEIU Low-Cost Degree Program online at Central State University has been extended and will continue to be FREE for continuing and new students who enroll in a bachelor's program in the upcoming academic year, or for the duration of their degree program, as long as they are continuously enrolled. There will be no out-of-pocket costs for OPEIU members and their family members. See below for more details.

Take advantage of this amazing opportunity today from your union. Register by Aug. 17 for the Fall (1) semester.

International students should contact lrosa@egcc.edu.

The House-passed Justice in Policing Act of 2020 is a solid first step toward real justice for Black Americans targeted by police brutality. Its provisions – including the banning of chokeholds and no-knock warrants, the creation of a national police misconduct database, and eliminating qualified immunity for law enforcement – are necessary and welcomed. Still, we must do more than simply change the way the law is enforced if we are truly invested in justice for Black Americans.

Laws at federal, state, and local levels continue to create the conditions for the criminalization of our Black sisters, brothers, and non-binary siblings. Disproportionate sentencing, disparities in “random” police stops, and the stigma of a conviction record preventing employment opportunities are all intimately tied to the scourge of police brutality and our racist criminal justice system, as well, but go unaddressed in this bill.

On June 19, 1865, the Union Army announced in Galveston, Texas, then a sparsely populated state, that all enslaved people were to be liberated, two years after Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation.

One hundred and fifty-five years later, on the anniversary of that fateful day, Juneteenth is celebrated nationwide in what is believed to be the oldest African-American holiday. OPEIU joins this national celebration and remembrance of black history, black culture, black struggle, and black progress.

This Juneteenth also serves as an opportunity to remember our black brothers, sisters, and non-binary siblings who today are still working, without choice, within the U.S. prison system. Hundreds of companies in the U.S. produce their products on the backs of underpaid workers in our nation's broken prison system, populated through our nation's broken criminal justice system that seems to criminalize blackness at every step of the way.

In celebrating Juneteenth this year, OPEIU recommits itself to the long and difficult struggle for black equality, black empowerment, and black freedom from a set of systems and institutions – ranging from policing and employment discrimination to profit-based healthcare and the intentional defunding of social programs – built specifically to benefit the few at the expense of many.

The following statement was made by OPEIU President Richard Lanigan in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the rights of DACA recipients in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California.

The Supreme Court’s ruling today is a landmark victory for a group of hardworking young people who deserve to live and work without fear of deportation or repression. Though OPEIU celebrates this milestone victory, there is more work to be done to fully win justice for DREAMers. 

Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), AFL-CIO, President Richard Lanigan on the Supreme Court decisions for Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, and R.G. & G. R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

OPEIU applauds yesterday's Supreme Court decisions, which solidified long-sought workplace protections for our LGBTQIA+ siblings.

This is a monumental victory for our LGBTQIA+ family. No one's livelihood should be taken away by a discriminatory employer just because of who one loves, or how one identifies.

All working people deserve justice in the workplace, so we are pleased by the Supreme Court's decision to extend essential rights to a group of people whose rights have unjustly hung in the balance for far too long.